For the uninitiated, the beer bong is an updated version of the yard beers popular many years ago. At the Brick House, you can order any beer on the draft menu in either a 16- or 20-ounce glass or in a large tube that mounts on a wood base with its own tap.

A full tube is 100 ounces, although the four of us opted for the 50-ounce half-bong. For Saint Arnold Amber, that cost $13.

Here’s how it works:

A gimmick? So what, it’s fun. I may never have been tempted to visit the Brick House Tavern on U.S. 290, but here on the island the schtick works. I wish the draft-beer lineup (Saint Arnold Amber, New Belgium Fat Tire and Red Hook Long Hammer IPA were the best of the bunch) was as ambitious as the bottle menu, which had Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA and some other good stuff. But we all found beers we liked, and the munchies we tried — something called “zucchini curls” — were tasty, as was the view of the Gulf.